A repeat of Australia’s worst disasters such as Cyclone Tracy and Sydney’s giant hailstorm in 1999 would hit the economy much harder now, given increased population and the rising costs of rebuilding, the Insurance Council of Australia has said.
The assessment, contained in this year’s insurance catastrophe resilience report, found that Tracy – which killed 71 people and caused $200m in insured losses when it struck Darwin in 1974 – would cause $7.4bn in losses if repeated today. If adjusted only for inflation, the cost would have been $1.78bn.
